Last week the minister for the environment said Ireland should consider a tax on old-fashioned incandescent light bulbs, which waste nearly 95% percent of their energy as heat but are cheap to make.

An Irish-made, 100-watt incandescent bulb sells for 76 cents at Tesco and Superquinn. The cheapest energy-efficient compact fluorescent (CFL) bulb costs Euro5.49 at Tesco. ie. By making the old incandescent bulbs more expensive, goes the thinking, it would encourage consumers to buy energy-efficient bulbs that use a fraction of the energy and last years.

Instead, European trade ministries actually moved to keep energy-efficient bulb prices artificially high.

Since 2002 the EU has placed a 66% import duty on CFL bulbs made by several Chinese manufacturers, accusing the Chinese of "dumping" cheap energy-efficient bulbs on the European market.

Critics charge, however, that the anti-dumping tax on Chinese imports is really about protecting manufacturing jobs at German firm Siemens, which owns the Osram brand of energy-efficient lightbulbs. Dutch firm Phillips is also a major supplier of the bulbs, but it faces a 33% tariff on its bulbs - something to do with its lowcost manufacturing in Asia. Phillips and US bulb manufacturer GE say they are in favour of lifting the surcharge.

A Department of the Environment spokesman would only say that the area of trade tariffs had nothing to do with the minister's portfolio.